As criminal as this may sound to MEGADETH fans, I’d never heard of Marty Friedman before I’d heard this album – no I’m not much of a fan of the aforementioned band but now I understand that he’s pretty famous and I can see why. It’s nice to have a change when you’re reviewing album after album of what might be quite similar music, but what makes this one a bit different is that it’s an instrumental, and the lack of vocals just seems to simplify the process of reviewing. Now with albums of this nature, there is one very important aspect – that the music is able to carry itself along well enough without sounding as if it needs singing to complete it, and on the whole “Loudspeaker” manages this quite nicely. And the main reason for this is the first-class guitar work, as you’d expect from a virtuoso guitarist of course.

As it’s by far the most important part of the album I’ll focus mainly on the guitar work then, and it’s easy to see how Friedman is able to get John Petrucci, Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan to guest on “Loudspeaker”; not only can he shred as well as the best of them, but he’s got a whole lot of groove and quite a distinct style that I find myself quite attracted to despite not often listening to this style of Metal. I mean the riffs aren’t anything fantastic, although I understand they are heavier than on any of his previous albums, but they’re fairly satisfying anyway, and besides it’s the actual soloing and lead lines which really count. The style of the songs ranges from early Thrash Metal (which I think sounds a little out of place in the context) to a sort of Progressive tinge – such as in “Glycerine Flesh”, which has a very smooth keyboard solo too. And actually, with tracks like “Street Demon” and “Black Orchid” the mood touches an almost (dare I say it) jolly tinge, and with Friedman’s ultra-sweet playing bringing a computer game soundtrack dimension too, so it’s not surprising why he’s big in Japan.

Personally, “Coloreas Mi Vida” is my favourite track. Opening with an exotic, jazzy edge and some really beautiful melodies, it seems the most thoughtfully written song on the album, but the whole thing runs through and I’ve found serves really well as both foreground and background music as there are no vocals to distract the listener. “Devil Take Tomorrow” is also another gem, and its epic nature serves as a perfect ending to just over 45 minutes of easy-listening, no-frills Metal with some much appreciated atmosphere too.